Petrol prices rise after brief halt, AA finds

Petrol prices touch a new high

The price of petrol at the pumps is rising again after weeks of falls.

The AA says the average cost of a litre of petrol is now 132.18p, with diesel at 137.26p.

Petrol prices peaked at 142.48p a litre in April but fell to 130.81p at the beginning of this month, before going up again.

AA president Edmund King said: "It was inevitable that pump prices would eventually rise again but... what is driving them up?"

He said: "Is it the fundamentals of supply and demand or speculation in the oil and wholesale fuel markets? Current evidence seems to suggest the latter."

The AA said motorists would have been paying even less if the fall in the north-west European wholesale price of petrol been fully passed on to consumers.

Wholesale prices have gone up again recently.

Last month, the government announced it would postpone its 3p-a-litre rise in fuel duty from August until January.

Petrol is cheapest in Yorkshire and Humberside, at 131.6p a litre, and most expensive in Northern Ireland at 133.4p.

Diesel costs the most in south-east England - 137.8p a litre, compared to just 136.6p in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Mr King said: "This week, we have seen UK inflation for June fall very close to the Bank of England's target.

"It makes you wonder how much closer it would have got had the full extent of lower fuel costs been passed on to drivers."